Hime and the Hollow
by Sinsanity
Summary: When Orihime chances upon a hurt Hollow on her way home from the grocery store, what will happen?  And why does it keep mooing?
1. Chapter 1

The sun streamed down from the sky, softly warming the town of Karakura. Soft, cottony clouds drifted overhead.

A set of cool gray eyes examined the wisps.

_They kind of look like peaches,_ the girl mused.

She set off down the street, her long orange hair swishing around behind her.

"Hi, Orihime!" called out a voice from across the street.

Orihime snapped out of her little world and glanced over. Rukia was dodging cars, running towards her and waving.

She smiled. "Hello, Rukia! How are you?"

Rukia came to a halt and panted a little before speaking. "I'm fine. And you?"

"Just… peachy," she hummed, chuckling to herself about the previous reference to the clouds.

_Now I'm actually in a peachy mood. Might as well buy some for my cooking experiments._

"Where are you going?" the shorter girl questioned.

"The grocery store. I'm gonna get some ingredients for dinner tonight!"

Rukia gave her this weird, slightly nauseated smile. "Uh, hehe, yeah. That seems great."

Orihime, however, didn't notice. "Yeah. I'm thinking peach and fish cobbler, with a mayonnaise and calamari marinade! Hey, you should come over so we can eat together!" the girl beamed at her friend.

Rukia appeared slightly alarmed. "Err, Orihime, that would be great, but I promised Ichigo that I would help him with his homework. With all his shinigami duties, he's been falling behind, so I feel like I should help him out some," Rukia sputtered out, maybe a little too quickly.

"Oh, that's okay. Maybe some other time," Orihime said as she grinned and started off towards the grocery store.

"Yeah… some other time…" Rukia trailed off as she waved to her friend from the corner, a little pale.

The red-head was now skipping through the crowds, making her way to her destination. Once she reached the store, she breezed over the various displays, selecting the tastiest looking items.

_Mmm, those oranges look so yummy… I think I'll just get some of those too.  
><em>  
>Items in hand, she walked over to the register.<p>

"Hello!" she sang out.

The man at the counter looked up. "Oh! Orihime!"

"Huh? Oh, it's you, Keigo! I didn't know that you worked here!"

"I only work part-time. I'm trying to pull together some cash so I can get cool video games, ya know?"

"Of course."

Suddenly, there was a weird banging sound coming from outside. Orihime looked around. None of the other people there seemed to notice except for her and Keigo.

"What was that?" she asked.

Keigo just sighed. "I have no idea. It's been happening for around three hours, but when I told the manager, he told me to take some pills because I was hearing things."

Orihime crinkled her eyebrows together.  
><em><br>Then it must be a spiritual being…_

"Well, here's your stuff," he said, handing her the bag. Then he made a face. "I really hope you aren't planning on eating all of that together…"

"Hey, why not?" She defended. "I won't get fat because this is all healthy food, and I exercise!"

With that, she stomped out of the store.

"It's not gaining weight that I'm concerned about…" he mumbled to himself as he moved to help the next customer.  
><em><br>Who's he to judge my eating habits? Hmph._

Remembering the strange banging, Orihime made her way down an alley near the store.

"Hello?" she called out. "Anyone here?"

She heard a faint whimpering. Rushing over, she found the source of the banging. And nearly passed out.

Lying in the shadows was a basilisk-like creature, at least four feet in diameter, with light, airy aqua skin (or whatever it was covering the creature) and a padded white underbelly. It was curled up in a ball with its tail waving back and forth, sometimes hitting the garbage can next to it and producing a loud rattling sound.

"Aww, poor thing," Orihime said to herself before reaching a hand out to the creature.

She made contact with its tail, and a head shot up. Big golden eyes stared back at her, but what really caught her attention was the object below them.

A great white mask rested just under the creature's eyes, rather mustache-like in appearance.

The Hollow looked at her, analyzing.

Orihime was worried. This close to the Hollow, it could kill her in a second.

She was about to retract her hand when the Hollow moaned a little bit and let its head fall back across its body.

_Huh?_

Orihime, now thoroughly curious, approached the Hollow again, this time noticing a terrible gash in its side.

Gasping, she ran over and felt at the wound.

The Hollow cried out, but was too weak to stop her as she examined it with a practiced eye.

_What do I do? I can't just leave it here… Ichigo or Rukia would just come and kill it, and this one doesn't seem all bad…  
><em>  
>She let her thoughts wander to her brother, Sora.<br>_  
>Sora turned into a Hollow, but he was okay in the end. Maybe this one was like him.<em>

"Shh, I'm going to make you all better now. Keep quiet, or Ichigo may find us," she informed it.

"Soten Kisshun, I reject," she chanted as she brought her hands to her clips.

The Hollow was slightly alarmed when the gold aura encircled its wound, but quickly calmed itself when it saw the damage being greatly reduced.

When the injury had been completely erased, the Hollow gave the spot a once over.

Quite happy with the results, the Hollow flung itself at Orihime with a satisfied, "Moo!"

Orihime squealed as she was glomped by the Hollow. "Moo?" she asked it.

"Moo!" it repeated.

As the Hollow nuzzled into her shoulder, she instinctively pet its head.

It mooed again.

"You aren't so vicious, are you Moo?" she trilled out.

Moo, as she now called it, hummed back to her.

She stood up.

_I can't just leave him here…_

Suddenly, her face lit up. A huge smile then plastered itself across her face.

"Hey, Moo! Follow me!" she sang out to the Hollow.

"Moo!"

And so, Orihime skipped back to her home through the streets, Hollow in tow.

She grinned again.

_I've always wanted a pet._


	2. Chapter 2

"Hey, Moo! Stop drinking from the toilet! Do you remember how long it took for me to get you out of the bathroom last time you got stuck in the doorway?"

She was answered with a defiant, "Moo!"

Orihime sighed. Moo was fun to have around, even though she only had him for around an hour or so. While he was fun, she quickly learned that pet Hollows were also high-maintenance.

"Come on out, Moo!" she crooned. "Guess what I have?"

"Moo?" Moo slowly slithered out of the bathroom, curious as to what the redhead had to offer.

The girl held up a bowl proudly. "I made Hollow food!" she informed Moo happily.

The Hollow looked dubious.

She pouted. "Aww, not you too!"

She turned her back on her new friend, crossed her arms, and stomped her foot haughtily.

"No one ever eats my cooking…" she muttered.

Her little emo session was interrupted by a loud ripping sound.

Frightened, Orihime spun around.

_What the…?_

Where the bowl had been not moments before, was now a gaping hole in her apartment floor. Moo sat close by, chewing up the food, bowl, and floor bits.

Swallowing, Moo looked like he was in deep thought.

_He ate the food…_

_…And the floor too. I'll need to get that fixed._

Orihime was about to scold her pet on the digestive problems that flooring can cause to one's stomach when Moo's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Mooooooo!" he happily sang out.

Orihime's eyes widened. "You… you liked it?"

"Moo!"

"You liked the food?"

The Hollow simply nodded.

Standing there, shocked, the girl was paralyzed for a moment.

Then, out of the blue, a wide smile nearly cracked her face in half and she flung herself at the Hollow.

"Oh, Moo! You're so great! You're my best friend ever!" she cried out, hugging her pet.

"Moo~" cooed Moo appreciatively.

For the next four hours, twenty minutes, and thirty-two seconds, Orihime and Moo went on a huge hippie-friendship montage, doing friendly activities such as going to carnivals, buying each other ice cream, shopping for accessories, playing mini-golf, skipping through fields of flowers, catching butterflies, eating butterflies, going fishing, swimming at the beach, starting their own gang and spray-painting their symbol on police buildings, trying on sunglasses, and climbing government-owned trees/monuments.

Finally, at nightfall, the two were thoroughly exhausted.

Sitting on a swing in the park they ended up at, Orihime looked over at Moo.

"Hey, Moo? We should do this again tomorrow," she hummed.

Moo gave a content hiccup.

"We're going to have so much fun together, and be best friends forever."

"Moo."

Sighing contently, the girl looked up at the stars.

_They're so pretty…_

She scanned the sky, planning to point out constellations that Tatsuki had shown her to Moo, when something strange appeared.

_Wait, is that a Senkaimon?_

Sure enough, the gates to the Soul Society appeared before the pair in the night sky.

Moo looked at her questioningly. "Moo?"

_This is bad… Any Shinigami in their right mind would kill Moo instantly!_

"Quick, Moo! You have to hide!" she warned the Hollow, jumping up and ushering him to the bushes.

Moo was almost completely hidden when it opened, revealing a single figure accompanied by a Hell Butterfly.

"Inoue?"

Orihime stopped in her tracks. She turned slowly, fearing for the life of her new friend.

"I can explain," she started.

The figure stepped out of the Senkaimon and landed before her.

"Shuuhei?"

There was no doubt that it was the lieutenant of Squad Nine, in all his tattooed glory.

_He looks rather worried,_ she noted.

"Um, Inoue, I know that you're rather understanding on most matters, so I suppose I can tell you. I've kind of bent the rules a little, and, well, ya see-" He's cut off when some massive object comes crashing through the bushes with a roaring, "Mooo!"

"Wait, Moo, no!" she cried out. Moo kept charging.

"Shuuhei, please, don't hurt hi-" She stops when she sees the man grinning, his eyes shining in joy.

_Huh? Did I miss something?_

Shuuhei extended his arms to the Hollow and ran to meet it.

"Moo!"

"Mo! I missed you so much!" he called out as he was tackled to the ground by the Hollow, which was now occupying itself by dousing the shinigami's face in Hollow drool.

"You two know each other?" Orihime questioned. "And his name is… Mo?"

Shuuhei smiled up at her from the ground. "Yeah, Mo is my Hollow! I found him running through the Fifth Division's courtyard, and Momo was really freaked out, so I hid him and used memory replacement on Momo. I keep him a secret from the others, for obvious reasons. I kept him in the forest below the Sokyoku, but one day he just disappeared. I would have never guessed he would end up here!"

Orihime smiled. "Oh, that's great! I have no idea what I would do if I lost a pet!" she said, clapping her hands in a frisky way.

Her smile faltered.

_Oh, wait. If Moo goes with Shuuhei…_

Orihime deflated a little, but managed to keep up a smile. "Well, I'm glad you found him," she told Shuuhei.

Shuuhei opened a Senkaimon and waved back to her. "Thanks for watching over him, Inoue!"

And with that, Shuuhei and Moo/Mo departed.

_There he goes…_

She looked up at the stars one last time before heading home.

Catching something strange, she shook her head and walked away.

_I could have sworn that I saw a garganta closing…_

-

Aizen silently reentered Las Noches.

_Almost got caught…_

_…I'm glad that Mo is doing okay._

Aizen smiled. He knew that Hisagi would take care of his former pet. 

_All according to my plan._


End file.
